The Metro region, like all the CERTs regions, is guided by a steering committee. The steering committee is made up of people with affiliations from communities, environmental organizations, utilities, state and local governments, academia and business. They help the Metro CERT staff keep updated on what is happening in their networks, what is emerging and what is needed to support community-scale clean energy projects. They also set priorities based on those trends and needs to guide the program and funding for the region. Click here to see the current members of the steering committee.
Over the past few months the steering committee has set priorities for the next two years that include elements from the broader CERTs strategic direction.
The priorities for the Metro region for 2018 & 2019 include:
- Focus on Lower-income or underserved communities with outreach, education and connection to resources and programs for action on energy efficiency/conservation and renewables
- Connecting residents and small businesses to renewable energy options
- Work with local governments to encourage, engage and support adoption of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure
- Seek opportunities to promote conservation/efficiency resources and programs to small businesses and multi-family housing, with a focus on senior living
The regional steering committees statewide were also involved in providing input and feedback on the broader CERTs strategic direction over the past year. CERTs is all about community-based clean energy- empowering community determined conservation, efficiency and renewables. Our vision is of solutions that permeate our state- achieving impact through wide-spread, replicable, additive actions. Our mission is centered on connecting individuals and their communities to effective resources. We also identified values and principles that emphasize; Impartially meeting stakeholders where they are, converting learning into doing and inclusive access.
That strategic direction includes trends that we’re responding to including among others, untapped opportunities in conservation and energy efficiency, game changers such as electric vehicles, battery storage and micro-grids, and ongoing equity/accessibility issues around efficiency and clean energy solutions.
We also decided to focus on a handful of audiences that include local governments, small businesses, utilities, agriculture, and low income. We are also very interested in opportunities to connect two or more of these audiences in partnership to work on projects for increased effectiveness. The audience focus helps us be more intentional and tailor our resources versus scattering them willy nilly.
How do we use these priorities? We used the Metro region priorities as a guide for selecting the Seed Grants that we funded this year and to guide the Metro region breakout at the 2018 CERTs Conference. For the conference we had two 15 minute rounds of table discussions focused on Multi-family energy reduction, clean energy financing, EV’s and your city, and small business energy efficiency. There were a number of connections made during those conversations that will hopefully lead to additional clean energy projects in the region.
If you or your community would like more information or want assistance to get a clean energy project off the ground contact Diana McKeown at dmckeown@gpisd.net or call 612-278-7158.
